There are a lot of characteristics that are involved in the profession of nursing. There is not one nurse who is the same. It takes a lot of different people to make up the profession of nursing, however, there are some characteristics that almost every nurse has. The three characteristics that are found in the profession of nursing are prevention, coordination of care, and patient advocacy. Each of these characteristics are essential to nursing, and the patients having successful outcomes.
Prevention is a huge part of nursing. It is not only important in education for patients/public to prevent falls, health problems, disease etc., but we also prevent medication errors, and many other incidents. According to Marshall, Dall’Oglio, Davis, Verret, & Jones, “nurses have the power to shape their care environment”(2015). Nurses have power to not only teach their patients, they have opportunities to teach the communities they reside in. The populations nurses treat, no matter what unit they work on, the prevention starts at home. It is vital to healthy patients.
There are many members of the health care team. There are nurses, doctors, physical therapists, dietary aids, pharmacists, and many others. It is so important that as a healthcare team, the goal is the same. The focus of the goal should be the patient. Care coordination is a way this is achieved. Scholz & Minuado state, “care coordination is the deliberate organization of patient care activities between two or more participants (including the patient) involved in a patients care to facilitate the appropriate delivery of healthcare services”(2015). Care coordination is a link in the chain to make sure the patient receives the care they deserve, and need to hopefully facilitate a healthy recovery.
Lastly, as a nurse, you become the patients advocate. The patient deserves and needs someone who will be in their corner. According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, an advocate is “one who pleads the cause of another” (2018). That is exactly what a nurse does, pleads for their patients case. The patients and their nurses often build a bond over the course of their stay. This bond will not only help the patient be comfortable with the nurse, it will help the nurse be a better patient advocate. We will know our patients more, and they will become people. When patients become people, the job becomes who you are. This not only vital in how well the patient receives the care, but also how much the patient believes they will recover. Nurses help the patient build up their own motivation in themselves.
There are some barriers to nursing however. One of the barriers to nursing is patient education and information for follow ups. We as nurses do our best to explain follow up care, prescriptions, and give discharge paperwork. However, sometimes patients get confused, or they just don’t do their follow ups. Patients don’t always understand their prescriptions either. In an article from American Nurse Today, it states, nurse are to present information at a fifth-grade reading level. This would not only simplify information, it would also allow patients to use the readback method more easily.
Nurses run into the barrier of being limited in their scope of practice. There are certain things that a registered nurse cannot do. This can impede patient care if there is a waiting period for someone who has the credentials to do a particular procedure. Patients have become more complicated in their healthcare, medicine has changed and grown. Nurses have adapted to the broadening field of medicine by increasing their skill set, and gaining more complex knowledge.
Lastly, another barrier nurses see is overcrowding and the nurse/patient ratio. Hospitals are filled with patients, no matter what department they work in. Often there are times when nurses are juggling 4+ patients in a shift. This nurse-to-patient ratio can have some consequences. Nurses can experience burn out, patients can be more at risk for unsafe practices, and medical errors can occur. This can be solved with better staffing ratios. Unfortunately, this isn’t always possible. When this is not possible, there can be mandatory breaks for nurses, an opportunity to leave the unit for 15 minutes to regroup.
In 2011, the Institute of Medicine put out a report which took a closer look at the future of medicine. There were two recommendations that will transform our future as nurses. One of these recommendations was to implement nurse residency programs. This would not only help nurses develop their skills, and transition more easily to the professional world, it would help retention of nurses. In the long run, this would help patients. They would be getting the best care, from qualified nurses who understand their department, and have been fully trained. This would help the future of medicine immensely.
Another recommendation that was in the IOM report is to make sure nurses engage in lifelong learning. This is vital to the nurses progression. Medicine is always progressing. Patients are becoming more complex, procedures are always changing. If the nurses aren’t progressing with those changes, then the patients are going to be in dangerous situations. This is vital to the nurse being able to be the best provider they can be. Special trainings, and in-services help to develop skills, and procedures for nurses. This should be implemented in every hospital in the nation.
The recommendations in the IOM report are important because it will help more forward the world of medicine, and patients will have better outcomes. Nurses take an oath to do no harm to their patients, without engaging in lifelong learning, and being trained properly(in residency programs, if available), they are unable to fulfill that oath. Nursing takes work, it isn’t supposed to be easy. It is supposed to stretch the nurse, and help them become the best nurse they can be.
For me personally, I have been a nurse for a little over a year, in the Emergency Department(ED). I have learned so much in the last year. Some of the things I have learned, I learned in school, but most of it was training that was specialized to my department. The things I have learned have been necessary to be a registered nurse in the ED. I need to be a safe nurse, who has the skill set to handle those traumatic situations and without being exposed and trained, I would never have been able to gain those skills needed. I believe that throughout my career, regardless of the department I am working in, I will always be learning. I mentioned before, nursing is always growing, medicine is always advancing, I need to always be growing.
My vision of myself over the next 5 years is very simple. I want to become the best nurse that I can be. I want to graduate with my Bachelor’s degree(BSN). I want to hopefully one day become a charge nurse in the ED. The organization I work for requires a BSN to be able to be a charge nurse. As I work towards my degree, I hope that my skill set can become more solidified, and I can become better at my critical thinking. These two things are important for the charge nurse. I know that these things are going to take work.
I want to be able to help my patients see their potential, and teach them how they can achieve it. I hope to potentially go onto earn my Master’s degree. I would like to become a Nurse Practitioner. I have always been drawn to oncology, so a oncology nurse practitioner is what I am hoping to earn. I am grateful for the opportunity to be a nurse, it has taught me so much about others. I have loved the last year, and the team I work with.
